Development of a dye with broadband absorbance in visible spectrum for an efficient dye-sensitized solar cell

Abstract

A blended dye composed of five organic dyes, namely, Rose Bengal, Eosin-Y, Rhodamine-B, Fast Green, and Acridine Orange, was developed and tested for various solar cell parameters of ZnO based dye-sensitized solar cell (DSSC). A comparison of the absorption spectra of dyes adsorbed on ZnO electrode revealed that the blended dye efficiently absorbs light in the entire visible region as compared with the individual dye. Six DSSCs were fabricated using the five individual dyes and one developed blended dye. The photovoltaic performance of the cells was examined by determining the various parameters such as open-circuit voltage, short-circuit current, energy conversion efficiency, fill factor, series resistance, and shunt resistance. Incident photon to current conversion efficiency was also measured to correlate the effect of the blended dye on the significant improvement of the solar cell parameters. The sensitization of ZnO electrode with blended dye has resulted in a maximum energy conversion efficiency of 7.9% of the solar cell.